The Ribbon
by Mognet
Summary: When Aerith Gainsborough is out attempting to assist the soil in Radiant Garden to bloom, she begins to think to herself, coming to a realization. Story is based lightly off a small head-canon in the Kingdom Hearts Universe. Enjoy.


Mogs note- Alright this story is simply stemmed from my own little thoughts. What if in Kingdom Hearts the characters were simply reincarnations of their former selves. Call it a simple head-canon of sorts! I thought it'd be 'sweet' in a way. Sorry if this story is very rough around the edges, it's my first fan-fiction in years, and first piece of literature I've ever truly put out there for the public eye. I'll keep trying hard! Enjoy!

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_It was only a short while ago that she'd heard... Though in truth, she had never checked the validity of the rumor, nor looked further into it. It was best to leave the past in the past after all... right? Don't get your hopes up only to have them dashed by the bad news to come._

" Oh Aerith.." The female in question mused to herself, as she shook her head. Gracefully she sat among the soon to be verdant grove of flowers that she was hoping to carefully tend to, and take part in its growth, and to watch bloom into something beautiful. She'd decided to begin preparations in a more secluded part of the once broken world...The very world that was once referred to as Hallow Bastion? Will one day bloom flowers. Frowning to herself, once again the female with the braided chestnut-colored hair found herself shaking her head, almost in disagreement.

"Such an unfitting name for a world that will soon grow such beautiful flowers." The flowers around the general area were frightened, and sad. After everything that had occurred in these last couple of years, all of the greenery in Radiant Garden had difficulties with growing once again. The fear of living only to die was something that she could sense. Yuffie never seemed to understand, and would often dismiss the fact that Aerith could most definitely understand and even hear certain things that others were quite possibly not attuned to. Then again, she was very young, so her doubt and dismissal was understandable. The maiden with the pink bow tied neatly in aforementioned hair did not feel the need to prove herself to anyone.

It wasn't Yuffie's lack of respect to the soon-to-be beautiful garden, that was distracting Aerith at this time. Instead, it was her words there-after.. The very words that after the raven-haired female had immediately dismissed Aerith's spoken plans of completing her usual routine of attempting to grow her flowers, that were **almost** shocking to her, and she wasn't even sure _why_.

Continuing to stare down at the patch of dirt she sat near, it had been _weeks_ since she'd planted these seeds. Yet there was nothing to show for it, no progress at all. Aerith found the frown on her face nearly impossible to rid. Perhaps more coaxing would be just the remedy to encourage them.

"**Please** grow," She pleaded gently. "I promise I won't allow anyone to hurt you ever again...So you don't have to be scared anymore. " Her green eyes fixated upon the dirt, as she softly attempted to comfort it.

"...Hm?" Glancing up in slight confusion as something _unusual_ caught her eye, she tilted her head ever-so-slightly, standing to her feet immediately and crossing her hands behind her back as per-usual of her stance. Upon closer investigation, there seemed to be something flying away in the wind. It was a pinkish color, _**and**_- Squinting her eyes, she gasped in confusion, attempting to glance back at her braid, quickly bringing up one of her hands to touch the top of her head. Once the realization had hit her, she frowned staring up at it as it flew off into the distance, traveling across the sky of the empty lot.

"My _ribbon_!" She called out desperately, grabbing the bottom of her dress up and hurriedly making her way after it. Keeping her eyes pinned to the exact spot in the sky that it was drifting off to as to hopefully not lose sight of it, she frowned. It was definitely a strange occurence, she hadn't tied it up in her hair any differently than usual. So the how's and why's to this mystery were unsolvable. Of all things for it to be, it was **that**. The very ribbon that she wasn't even quite sure how she'd gotten in the _first_ place; The only thing she was sure of, was that wearing it made her feel happy and almost nostalgic within'. So even if it seemed a bit silly, she absolutely could **not** allow herself to lose it. Lightly treading upon the dirt as to not mess up the work she had put into this soon-to-be garden, it seemed that the ribbon was losing its air and was slowly descending back down to the earth.

Relieved by this, she attempted to quicken her pace, only to accidentally trip over her own feet in said attempt. Luckily she'd managed to place her hands before her, to break part of the fall, otherwise it may have hurt _a lot_ more than it did. It was a quiet couple of seconds, as there was no visible or physical attempt put into getting back up to her feet. For a moment all that could be heard among the vast and quiet plains was light sobs. Not due to her falling, or the floating ribbon. Instead she had felt sort of upset ever since she heard Yuffie go on about a male who was supposedly becoming more and more well-known in the Olympus Coliseum due to his strength. Something of a boastful and prideful male, whom Yuffie apparantly admired due to his strength and desires to become a 'hero'.

Trained under Philoctetes himself, with his partner being Hercules, it seemed that this..._Person_ was going to be having an event soon, and there were fliers everywhere inviting everyone to go and attend the show to watch. Obviously with Yuffie going on about it, she wanted to attend and bring everyone around with her. Aerith on the other hand was feeling very doubtful, which was very unusual for her. After all it was a lot more usual for her to go along and humor Yuffie, as opposed to directly feeling against doing something in the first place. So why did the very idea...the very thought of this person she had never even met before leave her feeling so saddened and confused? For that matter she couldn't even remember the name, even though it was only said that very morning.

It wasn't like her to be so negative, however... The flowers refused to grow no matter how much she tended to them. On top of which, she felt a bit lonely at times. Yuffie was great company, but both females were practically from two different worlds entirely, so keeping up with the peppiness was difficult. Leon was of course, working on the restoration, and Cid was...Being Cid. There was no one to confide these nagging little thoughts to, and it honestly left her feeling a little bit desperate. Her only outlet was going to be this garden, and not even that was going well.

Mulling over the small detail of his name, the female finally found the strength to push herself up, sitting upon her knees and staring ahead at the pink ribbon laid messily on the ground just a little bit away from where she was seated now. Wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, and smiling gently, it was honestly silly to worry about these small things, right? Perhaps she was just scared to venture away from here, and that's what was instilling all the doubt she had.

Walking towards the ribbon, and leaning down to pick it up, she sighed once again and tied it back into its place in her hair carefully without anymore hesitation. Blinking in surprise, and staring down at the dirt, it seemed that her ribbon untying from her hair was no mere _coincidence_. Sitting there, barely pushing through the dirt was a _small_ blue flower bud.

_'Hey Aerith! Do you think we could go to Coliseum? There's this guy there who's really cool and training to be a hero, and they want everyone all around to come and see the competitions!' _

Placing a finger to her chin in thought, she stared up at the sky as the earlier events began to flood back into her head.

_'Yeah, his name is...'_

Eyes widening, a small smile finally broke through, and a feeling of relief washed over the female.

"Zack Fair..." Glancing down to the bud, and leaning down she laughed slightly. The flowers would most definitely bloom...And...

"Maybe I'll go with Yuffie and the others _after all._.."


End file.
